setting ambitious and achievable goals
In order to provide a clean energy future to a growing and changing city, Atlanta’s clean energy transition plan must contain ambitious yet achievable actions and goals.
Clean Energy Atlanta was created based off of the Atlanta City Council’s Clean Energy Resolution that set the goals of achieving a 100 percent clean energy transition for municipal operations by 2025 and community-wide by 2035. Thus, all of the scenarios, analyses, and policies outlined in this Plan reflect those goals. However, there are concerns among city leadership that achieving these goals within the 2025/2035 timeframes under current state and federal policy would result in the City simply purchasing large amounts of renewable energy credits rather than achieving the goal through energy efficiency and in-state renewable generation.
Therefore, the Mayor’s Office of Resilience has decided to make a recommendation to the Atlanta City Council to adjust the targets for attaining 100 percent clean energy by 2035 for municipal operations and community-wide. This adjustment of target dates does not impact the short-term strategies and approaches referenced in this Plan; it gives City departments, partners, and stakeholders a more realistic timeline to not only achieve these goals, but to achieve them in a truly equitable, beneficial manner.
